Between smoke breaks, Jim Leyland anointed Fernando Rodney the opening day closer. This sounds like when you were a kid and you tried to pulled something like, “Pops, you said not to put on my bathing suit until after lunch so I went into the pool in my dungarees.” Leyland is saying Rodney is the opening day closer, then on April 7th he’ll call on Lyon to close a game. In other words, this is still a coin flip. I’m holding onto Brandon Lyon in every league I own him (which is a few actually). I’m also picking up Rodney on the teams where I have room. Later, Chad Cordero! Don’t drop anyone that worthwhile for either of these schmohawks, but saves are saves and if someone’s getting them, they should be owned. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in spring training for fantasy baseball:

Rick Porcello – Big day in Motown. The Tigers named Porcello their number five starter. Porcello is easily my favorite Tigers starter. Let’s see how highly we should consider that a compliment… Galarraga? Blah. Verlander? Bleh. Miner? Blech. Robertson? Belch. Jackson, Bonderman and Willis? Ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 Detroit Tigers pitching staff. Porcello is worth a flier in AL-Only leagues and deep mixed leagues. He’s very raw so you should expect some speed bumps, but sometimes hitters are so unfamiliar with a pitcher that the pitcher can catch them off guard for a month or two.

Troy Glaus – After a setback, he’ll be out until at least June. Punt!

David Freese – He should be owned already in NL-Only leagues. He’s the kind of player that can become mixed league worthy real fast. So if you’re hurting at 3rd or Corner, I’d pick him up just to see if he can carry on his numbers from Triple-A where he hit .306 with 26 HRs.

Mark Teahen – We now bring you our Royals segment of the program. Hey! Don’t switch the channel! Teahen’s bringing his yawnstipating offense to 2nd base where it’s almost digestible. Stay tuned!

Sidney Ponson – Won the 4th (!) spot in the Royals rotation. Yeah, the Royals are totally this year’s Rays. If last year’s Rays had Eric Hinske pitching for them.

Homer Bailey – Seems to have finally turned the corner. Might make a splash this year as a mid-season callup.

Matt Joyce – Made the Rays out of spring, but once Upton returns he’s going to have a hard time working his way into the Kapler/Gross platoon. Seriously, there’s not a bit of irony in that.

Jeremy Guthrie – Has looked real rusty so far. He gets the Sawx, Yanks and Rays out of the gate, so if I’m owning him, I’m probably not starting him.

Ben Francisco – Not that we should put much stock into spring numbers, but Francisco has been doing it and doing it and doing it well. Now if he’ll steal some bases like he did in the minors, we could have a potential breakout.

Chris Shelton – Batted .460 in spring and was sent to the minors. Wait, he has a good ten more days in him!

Joe Saunders – Dead arm. As opposed to what he had before which was what? A live arm? Please.

Damn you Clint Hurdle and Jim Leyland. I have to make a decision on Rodney tonight and it would be nice to know if Manny Corpas is a crappy closer or not before I sacrifice a roster spot to pick him up.

I’d like to see a little Ryan Perry (or KYLE PERRY as ESPN has him listed three time on their website). BTW, I predict a jump in sales of Don’t Stop Believin’ in South Detroit.

“Top pitching prospects Rick Porcello and Kyle Perry found out Wednesday they made the opening-day roster. Porcello, selected in the first round of the 2007 draft, and Perry, Detroit’s first-round pick last year, haven’t pitched above Class A.”

King Felix has been shelled in last two spring starts. Im starting to feel a bit of hesitation starting him opening day against the Twins. Its either him or Kuroda in SD. What you think, is Hiroki the man?

grey,ive been watching francisco this spring also,5 sb`s,,you guys are good,i usually like handcuffing my questionable starts players with west coast players,later starting times gives ample time to change lineup,still wishing Glavine would go down and take 1 for the team,but when your throwing 75 mph,its hard to hurt yourself like sid finch did yesterday

A source told the Denver Post’s Troy Renck that Huston Street has captured the Rockies’ closing job over Manny Corpas.

Manager Clint Hurdle is expected to make it official Thursday afternoon. Corpas has allowed just one run this spring, but has also shown a significant drop in velocity. He’s averaging just 89 mph on his sinker. Street hasn’t required more than 12 pitches to retire the side in his last nine appearances. After a slow start, he has clearly shown that he’s the better bet in the ninth inning.

I don’t know — he requires 12 pitches to retire the side? What is he, Dice-K? “Here’s my fastball. Now my curve. Now my slurve. Now my gyro-pitch. Now the reverse gyro. Now the gyro-change. Now the gyro-step-ball-change. Now the knuckleball. Now the ball-knuckle. Just you wait, batter. I got three more pitches you ain’t even seen yet!”

Brian Wilson hasn’t pitched in an exhibition game in eight days because of an infected middle finger and is in danger of missing the season opener.

The Giants don’t get going until Tuesday, so time is on his side, but he’ll need to jump back into live action pretty soon. Wilson has thrown 10 scoreless innings this spring with a 9/4 K/BB ratio. Jeremy Affeldt would probably fill in if Wilson isn’t ready.

Just when you thought the whoring was over, they drag you back in! It’s Saves Whore II: The Whorening.

so should i handcuff lyons with rodney….? I’d have to drop NUNEZ i think…. ughhhh why the hell would a team pay Lyons $4 million dollars and NOT use him as the closer, why the EFFFFFF would you get him and pay him that much if he’s not going to close!!!!!!

Hey Grey, I’m bleeding at 3rd base until Sandoval qualifies in the 10th game. I have Andy Laroche there for now, he’s guaranteed to start. Platoon is Larussa’s middle name, so would you still recommend Freese over Laroche?

@Colin: For ten games I’d stick with LaRoche. Or you could check out our Flavor of the Week, Bonifacio! You can really taste the Facio!

Does he qualify at 3B? For short-stint players, I like guys who can rack up counting stats like steals. Laroche could easily hang ten days of blah-tastic on you.

p.s. Colin, are you in Yahoo!? If you are, you should be using Sandoval at C, no questions asked.

One schmo in my league drafted Sandoval hella early, like 10th round — and is using him at 1B, because he also has Soto. Dude! You could have had Votto! I guess I should whisper that, Soto Votto-style.

@Baron Von Vulturewins: Baron, we moved to ESPN this year. They offer better service and live scoring for FREE! It was a no brainer considering Yahoo! takes forever to add players to their database as well. Of course that being said Yahoo! has Sandoval at C, 1B and 3rd, while ESPN has him at 1B only if you can believe. You wouldn’t believe the E-mail war I had with their support department. I tried explaining to them that Sandoval started 13 games at 1B and 12 at 3rd, so he should get both at least. But of course this fell upon deaf ears, or blind eyes in this case.

LoL as for the Schmo that drafted him early….he didn’t have to, but he will be nicely rewarded! I think this kid will destroy NL pitching this year! He’s as pure a hitter as they come. Now if only they wouldn’t bat him behind Monsieur Pied-Lourd. (that’s Mr. Heavy-Foot in French!)

@IowaCubs: You guys think Scott Baker’s buy low right now? OR just plain low? Also, I’m looking at Koji Uehara’s japan statline. Pretty similar to Kuroda’s (Koji has epic control but slightly worse K numbers). The strikeouts are mediocre, but he could be useful down the same vein that just about every Twins pitcher is somewhat useful.

Also, how the hell does Brad Evans find work as a fantasy analyst? His pages are, on average, 3 paragraphs of content to every 5 mind-numbingly inapplicable aside paragraphs (comparing Chris Carpenter to Erin Brockovich? Really?). And he’s probably one of the highest paid fantasy analysts. Honestly, I can only imagine his boss, “Hey, Brad. Good piece on how you compare 99% owned Miguel Cabrera to a kielbasa sausage. Keep up the good work. Oh, and Behrens! Can you fluff Brad if he starts getting sweepy again?”

keep a eye on Boston today. Penny is making the his final start of the season and if he stumbles clay bucholtz will probably snag the 5th starter spot. And the way he has pitched this spring it looks like he might be ready to deliver on all the hype.

Yes, Guthrie has looked terrible. He looked like he was throwing batting practice in his last spring game. With his straight batting practice fastballs, and his slow arching curves that settled very nicely just above the batter’s waist, it was not a pretty sight. While I’ve always that he was a strikeout pitch away from a breakout, it won’t be happening anytime soon. Truth be told, his April could be brutal.

I have Sandoval at C in a Yahoo league. Some dude drafted Wieters in the 9th round and dropped him the other day. I picked him up (despite using my waiver priority on Flopez the day before). What kind of value should I be looking for with a trade of Wieters or Sandoval? I’d probably wait to shop them until Wieters is called up.

Yahoo League, Sandoval as catcher, Miggy at 1b, Aramis at 3b, Votto at Util, I am short on Closers.

Drop Ianetta to grab another closer? If yes, Ziegler, Rodney, or Street? Or drop Figgins for any of the above 3 closers? I have read Grey’s thoughts on Figgins, but position eligibility (3b and 2b) as well as steals and run (Anaheim offense , Figgins batting 1rst) make him somewhat desirable.

Damn, I can’t believe I am making this many moves before they even throw one pitch!

i know its only spring games,but whats up with kemp being caught stealing 5 times with 3 sb`s??he worked out with a track coach in offseason,,im not freakin out yet but this isnt what id expect to see,,

figgins eligibility at 2nd in yahoo?if so he`s worth keeping but drop ianetta for street or zieg,rodney only if desperate,if all these rp`s are available it must be a shallow league and 2 catchers arent needed,or worth much to trade

@Grey (Part II): H2H Points League…Is Colby Rasmus making the major league roster? I have him tucked into my tight little minor league slot and have Brandon Wood on the bench. With Wood going to minors who would you rather have in that slot?

@grey: i see everyone in my leagues scrambling to make useless moves before the start of the season (ie: dropping litsch for lannan, dropping garrett anderson for crapolanco). any advice as to how to spend the last few days before the frenzy begins, so that i can avoid over-analyzing my team(s)…

I know that not much stock should be placed in ST #s, but he’s got like 3 K’s. He must be doing something different. Are the Cards’ ST facilities near those of the O’s? Maybe he got into Adam Jones’ stash…

Why are people making offensive swaps BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS? Unless you look at your team and realize “Drat! I totally forgot to draft a second baseman!” or “Holy smokes! My entire OF got sent to AAA!” there’s not much point in swapping one benchwarmer for another.

@sean: Read a book? I wouldn’t do anything but shuffle potential closers at this point, unless someone is glaring for an upgrade.

@royce!: I agree with Baron. Greene’s been pretty awful his entire career but he has power. Maybe he hits 25 HRs with a .250 average this year instead of .230. If he comes out of the gate hitting .300 in April, I’ll be telling you to trade him in May.

@Baron Von Vulturewins: to win the side bet for most transactions of course! Or I don’t know… do a large number of league transactions boost the competitive factor of the league…. Hello Taco Bell I am coming for you!

@sean: Yeah, I understand making speculative moves who new info comes out, I picked up Daniel Murphy in two leagues when it became clear he would likely bat 2nd. And I picked up Burriss in my deepest league (where I have Andrus at SS already) now I’ve got two lottery tickets instead of one! But there’s no reason to make the kind of moves you described.

That said, there’s no real reason not to drop Litsch for Lannan or Garrett for Flacido, unless there’s a cap on moves or you happen to drop a guy who comes out of the gate white-hot and gets picked up by someone else. The chances of that happening are about the same as picking someone up who comes out white-hot. I say go ahead and drop scrubs for scrubs if you want. Or don’t. Either way.

12 team 5 x 5 Keeper League – Is Mike Lowell an upgrade over either Stewart or Mora at 3B? If so do I drop one to pick up Lowell?

Based on projected numbers I am going to need some help in Avg and SBs…… Any thoughts on the following guys…… Brett Gardner, Travis Snider, Carlos Gomez, Randy Winn, Todd Helton and David Freese. How would you rank them? Thanks

@SP: Try MLBDepthCharts.com, it’s fairly new and I’ve found it to be a really helpful resource so far. I’ve been meaning to recommend the site to you folks if you haven’t stumbled across it yet, but SP asked so there you have it.